Ricordanza Replay

Time to reflect and stretch and ponder, and reflect and stretch, and catch the evening breeze through the open windows of this flat, here in North East London. It's a purpose built modern block, with a solid feel, and flowers and tended plants outside. Also a surprising abundance of trees. It's cold tonight though, but I opened the windows earlier to let in some fresh air, and dispel some cooking smells - a regular and vital task especially in a smallish place, which this is. Lovely to sense the fresh air just drifting in and doing its stuff.

Feeling grainy, tired, frustrated, caught between feeling full/satisfied and yet empty tonight - but just now wonderfully rested and healed by "Ricordanza", the 9th. Transcendental Study by Liszt, in the dream key of A Major. The whispering runs, curling and looping up and down the keyboard, suspended in time and space, the soft, delicious edible chords accompanying the soft melody as it plies its delicious trade, on this crisp Spring evening. Ahhhh, and now time for coffee...There's always time for bliss. I think I will go back and replay Ricordanza.

Wagner recording from 1926

Conversation just had with my father about a Wagner recording we both heard on Radio 3 yesterday morning (he is packing suitcases about to board a plane with my mother for Cornwall - Newquay Airport). It was an extract from a Wagner opera, live, conducted by Wagner's son, Siegfried. My father was telling me the voice I heard was that of a Russian bass. The voice reproduction was incredible. It really was incredible...As if this huge fellow were singing to me from the bathroom next door: a large, resonant voice, rich, mature, deep oak.

White Light in early evening - East London

Going down Stannard Road, E8, on Sunday evening just gone, in a double-decker Routemaster bus. The front seat on the lower deck. The bus conductor an imposing lady in cool shades and turquoise shirt with a fixating stare. You would know about it when she wants your fare. To the right of that window, jutting out upfront, is the driver's cab, and inside the driver manfully grapples with the huge old wheel, and the handbrake, as if piloting a cruiser. A white light shines through the speckled, grimy front window - the long road curves out in front of us, with tall residential blocks, offices and Association buildings, groaning houses staring down on either side of the street, and the sun far overhead in the distance, throws out the white light. A direct fiery light of early evening - like a vast white flannel studded with diamonds.

Battery Life...

Struck yesterday by a thought as I was on a commuter train to visit my family. I was listening to...Liszt's Transcendental Studies performed by Jena Jando on Naxos.
But alas my CD walkman was signalling low battery.
It struck me how strange and marvellous it would be if there was a relationship between the physical and mental effort required to produce the music and the battery power on your listening device. So the musicians themselves would somehow be powering our listening. In the case of the Liszt Transcendental Studies - well, they generate enough energy to power a people carrier from London to Paris...!

I had a vision of Jena Jando, like some Victorian-era Artisan, in ornate shirtsleeves, sweating away at the keyboard, in some candle-lit parlour, no time for food or water, keeping my CD Walkman alive, as I walked through the side streets of Walthamstow on a Saturday evening, heading for my station, with a stirring rendition of the fiendishly difficult "Mazeppa" - a daunting piece requiring all kinds of physical agility and perfect timing.

Yes, the Liszt Transcendental Studies are fiendishly, horrendously difficult.

So Jena Jando's CD should really come with a big red sticker on it, saying, "Bonus Battery Life"...!
But there again a laid-back "chillout" CD hailing from Ibiza: maybe only "Medium Battery life" on the sticker...
The Rolling Stones live?...Errr...High Voltage!